An incredible video of Duke Nukem Begins re-emerges from the quicksand of vaporware, the Gearbox shooter that was announced in 2009 by the Borderlands software house but which, unfortunately or thank goodness, never saw the light of the shops.
The creator of the crazy trailer that we can admire at the top of the news is Gregor Punchatz: the former employee of the Texan Janimation explains that, in 2008, he was hired by Gearbox to make a “vertical slice” movie that could offer ideas for the gameplay experience to be recreated in the actual game.
As suggested by the name of this project itself, Duke Begins was supposed to tell the story about the origins of the Duke: Punchatz claims to have directed the video above and to have been personally involved in the creation of the design of the protagonist, from the modeling of the character to the transposition of the attack animations to the screen.
The former Janimation member finally explains that “Unfortunately, while we were working on this video we became aware of the cancellation of the game due to the legal issues affecting Duke Nukem’s IP at the time. That announcement literally destroyed us. , at the time we hoped to be able to make Duke Begins a stepping stone to compete with the biggest companies in the field of specialized teams in the development of video game trailers. “
The scenes immortalized in the Duke Nukem Begins video testify to the passion lavished by the team directed by Punchatz in the making of this video, especially as regards the originality of the weapons used by the Duke and the equally unusual scenarios of the never-born Gearbox shooter adventure.